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Ganassi may be flexible if solution found to replace McMurray

MARTINSVILLE, Va. - Car owner Chip Ganassi may be softening his stance against Jamie McMurray leaving before his contract expires.

McMurray signed a contract to drive for Roush Racing in 2007, and he's tried to get an early release to start his new job next season.

Ganassi's said for two months he won't let his driver out of his contract but is now reconsidering - if Kurt Busch earns an early release from his contract at Roush Racing.

Busch, like McMurray, is under contract next year but he's already signed a contract with another team for 2007. Busch is scheduled to move into Rusty Wallace's No. 2 Dodge in 2007.

If Busch can get out of his deal at Roush, it would allow Roush to cut a deal with Ganassi to get McMurray into the No. 97 Ford next year.

"There are no talks at this time, but there could be if someone came to me with a solution," Ganassi told ESPN. "I need a solution, not a pile of money. I need a driver to replace Jamie."

Ganassi said he might be flexible if either Roush or car owner Roger Penske can provide a top-level driver to replace McMurray.

"Look, I am not going to be Jack Roush or Roger Penske's whipping boy," Ganassi said. "I'm the end of the line on this thing, and I'm trying to put together my team, too."

If a deal can't be struck, Mark Martin will postpone his retirement for one year and remain with Roush and Penske will have to find a replacement driver for one year.

That tired feeling

The Atlanta Motor Speedway and Lowe's Motor Speedway are similarly shaped, making it easy to believe if there were tire problems last week at Lowe's there might be tire problems in the Oct. 30 Bass Pro Shops MBNA 500.

Johnny Benson may have the answer.

His car slammed into the second-turn wall during a test session Monday at the 1.54-mile racetrack. The accident started when his right-front tire exploded.

"I had a great car," Benson said. "Those tires only had six laps of them and the right-front just blew apart."

Don't touch that dial

Television ratings from last Saturday's UAW-GM 500 were a record for the race and were on par with ratings with daytime starts.

A 4.8 rating beat last year's record of 4.6, according to Nielsen Media Research.

Usually night-time races have lower ratings, especially Saturday night races. But the 4.8 rating was better than the daytime start at Kansas (4.5) and better than the numbers from Dover, Del. (3.1).

The highest-rated race in the past month was the UAW-Ford 500 at the Talladega Superspeedway with a 5.3 rating.